Still here Sweet barn shot, that oversaturated "oil film" rainbow in the clouds is an interesting effect.

I simply haven't gotten outside much to do any real shooting, but hopefully in the next couple weeks I'll get in a short day hike somewhere. Meanwhile, here are some funnel cloud shots from July 14. Storm was moving fast and it was too late in the season for a tornado to stabilize, but sure did look impressive, especially for throwing this kind of show right over downtown Denver:

All shot with the Tokina ATX 80-200mm f/2.8. Unfortunately the tint on the office windows did awful things to my contrast and sharpness, necessitating heavy post processsing, which further degraded the sharpness...

I have been trying to get outside lately to actually start relaxing a bit as this summer finally winds down...I have one more wedding to edit and a bit more work on my commissioned work from around Nebraska and then I may actually slow down a bit...

I was at Stony Dome, 62 miles into the narrow 92-mile long dead-end gravel road in Denali National Park (still more than 40 miles from the base of the "Big One"). The weather was exceptionally clear on the mountain at mid-day. Fewer than 17% of park visitors get to see the view that we did almost completely free of clouds. This is what it looked like an hour earlier from about 20 miles further away.

The EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens served me well in the park. Besides the shots of the mountain, I managed to capture some wildlife, like this relatively-rare wolf sighting.

Finally got a couple interesting shots on Saturday, one with my narrowest lens and one with my widest:

Tokina 80-200mm f/2.8 at 190mm and f/3.2, at a shooting distance of about 10-15 feet from the neighbor's bird feeer. Ordinarily the two neighborhood squirrels would be raiding it at that time of morning, but apparently the migrating larks had chased them away.

Tokina 12-24mm f/4.0 at 12mm and f/7.1, at a shooting distance of about 3 feet from the corner of the car. This was about 2pm in the afternoon and the owner of the bar behind the Nova SS came out in a chatty mood, having nothing better to do. Apparently his BIL is the original owner of the vehicle and although the paint and chrome have been redone, the sheet metal underneath is original and unrestored. The bar itself is 77 years old and still in the same family, having acquired the second liquor license in Jefferson County after prohibition was repealed.

Ketchikan, eh? My sis and BIL lived up there for a few years. He had hoped to get more flying time for his pilot interests but the market is crowded, and as their family grew, they finally moved back to Colorado to be closer to family on both sides.

They got some amazing photos, though. If you get farther away from town up into the island's core, there are evidently some incredible hiking areas.

It's one of the columns holding up the Tlingit lodge house. It's carved like the totem poles, depicting the myth of Black-skin tearing the killer sea lion in half with his amazingly-strong hands. What's neat about this shot is that it was dim in there and I didn't use a flash. ISO 1600, f/2.8, 1/8 second... hand-held. Those photos are small (2½ megapixel vs. 10 MP full-size) JPEGs, straight out of the camera.

I picked up an Olympus EP-2 a while back. So far I'm having a lot of fun with micro 4/3. It won't replace my Nikon system any time soon, but it's small enough that I carry it more, use it more, and so far I've been happy.

Yeah, that is the whole theory with u4/3 is the best camera is the one you have with you. I have my fingers crossed that a u4/3 comes along with Pentax K5 - type dynamic range and noise control. Soon. I would never look back.

It's one of the columns holding up the Tlingit lodge house. It's carved like the totem poles, depicting the myth of Black-skin tearing the killer sea lion in half with his amazingly-strong hands. What's neat about this shot is that it was dim in there and I didn't use a flash. ISO 1600, f/2.8, 1/8 second... hand-held. Those photos are small (2½ megapixel vs. 10 MP full-size) JPEGs, straight out of the camera.

Man, I must get the family out west one of these days to see that. Impressive stuff.

In hindsight, I wish that I had skipped lunch and continued to brave the cold wind on the observation platform for more of the trip. Photos (like the one linked in the thumbnail above) shot through the rain-covered windows and canopy didn't come out as well as I would have liked.

Finally I can post a few of the images from my tour of Nebraska. I was commissioned to photograph 35 different cities in Nebraska for a local business who has conference rooms named after each of the cities, with the end result being 2-4 prints per room. It was so much fun road-tripping (3,200+ miles driven in 11 days) and seeing all the different land/cityscapes that Nebraska has to offer. I will only post a few here, but I am in the works getting this all published, and I'm hopeful more can be shared at that time. Hope you like these!

I do like them still-life/slice-of-life photos. You don't have to pose the subject and you don't even have to be at the right place at the right time -- just show up and look for the right perspective while waiting for good light.